Hancock (2008)

I had been planning on watching this film for quite a while, both for the superhero factor and for Will Smith.  I have always enjoyed Will Smiths films and intended to watch all of them, but that petered off.  Still I don't think he has made a bad film, though Bad Boys (1995) could be the exception, or at least blamed on Martin Lawerence.

I knew practically nothing about Hancock before I watched it.  All the pictures I had seen of the film merely confused me more, as they showed Hancock looking sort of like a homeless guy, though I recall one where he did look like an actual superhero.

The film itself was okay, and I give it accolades for being unprecedented.  Still, there were some things in the film that didn't make sense.  Hancock was supposed to be unaware of basic pleasantries, as well as having a complete disregard for property damage, but it's unfathomable as to how he could be oblivious to all that (was it supposed to be because he was drunk?).

The real problem with the film was when he discovered the other superpowered individual.  It was kind of like Highlander 2, which was a horrible mess.  From there, there were too many coincidental events, making a unique film into a bit of a let down.

Race to Witch Mountain (2009)

I have planned to watch this movie for quite a while, but haven't been motivated to do so.  A couple of days ago, I caught part of the movie on TV, and it looked interesting and a bit fun, so I thought I would go back and watch the whole thing.

As a kid, I watched the original film, and it's sequel I believe, so I thought I should see what they did with it.  Honestly, the original films were not that great, but that is not what they were striving for.  Disney was pumping out a lot of G rated live action films, which were good enough and entertaining, but not spectacular.  I did enjoy the film as a kid, but there were some pretty hokey special effects and a few inconsitancies which kinda stuck out.

With this new film Race to Witch Mountain, I wasn't expecting that improving the special effects would have a major effect on the quality of the picture, and it didn't.  It turns out that the place where I started watching the film from was near the middle, and the first hour or so proceeding it was not all that enthralling.

The whole mystery of the kids origin which was a key issue in the original film, was completely absent from this film.  The film was a mishmash of action, sci fi and a few other elements stuck in.  Added to that there was some kind of bounty hunter who wasn't particularly relevant, except for occasionally motivating the protagonists to vacate from their present location, as well as some questionable actions by the star of the film "The Rock", made this a rather mediocre film.

Starship Troopers

I've never heard anything compelling about this film that inspired me to watch it, but I've liked a number of Paul Verhoeven's films (Total Recall and Robocop) so I thought I would give it a shot.

Funny thing is, I played a computer game based on this film, so I was familar with the insects they battled before watching the film.  But some how I had never caught pieces of the film shown  on cable before.

The film was okay, but a bit short of the comedy elements from Robocop, and it lacked a compelling story that drove both Robocop and Total Recall.  It gave no sense of accomplishment of the characters, more like they were just lucky enough to survive the battles they were thrust into.  At the end, I felt like, "That's all?"  and "What happens next?"  Honestly, I think the computer game was better.

I was a surprised to see Clancy Brown (the Kurgen from Highlander) in this, as he always makes an impression.  Still, compared to some of his other characters, this one was less intimidating.

Red Tails

Being that this was a Lucasfilm release, I had considered watching it in the theater, even more so as it featured WWII dog fighting, which George Lucas had based his space battles on.  The preveiews looked promising, but some how I never made it to the theater.  Still, somewhere deep in my heart I hoped that this film would be a runaway success like Star Wars and add another franchise to Lucasfilm.

While I had read that the film didn't do great at the box office, I thought it was fairly well done as far as story elements went.  Some of the claims by the airmen will rather incredulous, as well as how many kills the squadron got, compared to nearly non existent losses.  While the air combat was good, it wasn't enough to make it as thrilling an experience as some other films which included dog fighting.

As for the name, it is interesting as it is not clear why it was called that name at first, and the name tells little about the content of the film.  Also such as name is Red Tails seems like it could be confused with the name of an animated feature.

Historically, this is a group and situations that people need to be aware of, and for that alone, it's good that it was made.  It was a good film, but perhaps not a great one.

Kagemusha (1980)

Between the time when George Lucas had finished Return of the Jedi, but before he had created the prequels, he executive produced a number of films.  I, as a loyal Star Wars fan, thought it was my duty to see those films.  I have watched a number of them, Twice Upon A Time, Tucker: A Man and his Dream, Mishima: A Life in Four Acts, but some how I had over looked Kagemusha, which was directed by Akira Kurosawa, who had influenced George Lucas in his creation of Star Wars, with his film "The Hidden Fortress".

I have watched a number of Akira Kurosawa's films, and I have found them all to be good, though they have all been in historical settings in the age of samurai, so you would need to enjoy those types of films to find this film interesting.

I found this film to be pretty good, though strangely the color distracted me a bit (as most of his films I have seen were in black and white), as it took me out of the historical frame of mind a bit.  I had imagined the costumes to be a bit more muted than they were.  I do find some Japanese films lacking in highs and lows, as well as challenges for a protagonist to over come.  There is no great heroic moment in this film. 

Dungeonmaster

I was looking for a T-shirt with the quote made by Adam Savage (from Mythbusters) that he said "I reject your reality and substitute my own".  I had assumed this was an original quote by him, but as it turns out, it was actual taken from the 1985 film Dungeonmaster, which inspired me to watch this film.

It was quite an odd film, as it started out with a couple, of whom the female was jealous of the amount of time the man was spending with his computer.  It rapidly switched to the couple being thrust into various situations, as dictated by Richard Moll, of Night Court fame, most of which were tests of the man's ability to resolve those situations.  This was largely accomplished by the man using his trusty computer which was part of an armband he wore.  The computer seem to spontaneously gain abilities which allowed it to resolve the situations.  Blatant case of deus ex machina.

There were half a dozen of these situations the couple found themselves in, and apparently each one was directed by a different director (as at least 3 directors were listed in the opening credits).

Overall, the film was rather unsatisfying.  Each situation was resolved fairly easily, giving little excitement to the film.

BTW, the quote comes fairly early in the film, just in case you were interested.